An Post Sean Kelly Team turn focus to Etoile de Besseges

by Cillian Kelly

The An Post-Sean Kelly team continue their early season build up this week as they take on the five-day Étoile de Bessèges stage race in southern France.

The eight-man team due to take part is the same as that which competed in the GP d'Ouverture la Marseillaise on Sunday. Once again, the Irish riders present on the startline will be Ronan McLaughlin and Sean Downey.

The race takes place in the Gard region in France, north-west of Marseille. The weather forecast for the week is set to be cold and damp with temperatures hovering around 5°C with a chance of heavy sleet showers. This will make for a tough five days in the saddle for the An Post-Sean Kelly riders.

In previous years, the route has consisted of five lumpy stages each with a distance of around 150km. However, this year sees a slight change to the route. The first four stages will remain as middle-distance road stages with finishes in Bellegarde, Saint-Ambroix, Bessèges and Bagnols-sur-Ceze.

But the final day has been split in two, with an 82km road stage around Alès in the morning and a 9.7km time trial in the afternoon which will provide a final shakeup to the general classification.

The An Post-Sean Kelly team will be led by road captain Niko Eeckhout who is no stranger to the Étoile de Bessèges. The former Belgian champion won this race overall back in 2001 while riding for the Lotto-Adecco team. He also won a stage while racing for An Post-Sean Kelly taking the bunch sprint on the final day in 2010. Eeckhout's compatriot Pieter Ghyllebert finished third overall that year and he is also due to start the race for the team tomorrow.

McLaughlin and Downey will have their work cut out bettering the previous best Irish performance in the race which was achieved by none other than Sean Kelly himself. The team owner finished third overall in one of his first ever outings as a professional for the Flandria team in 1977. 

Former Irish pro Martin Earley also managed to finish in ninth place overall in his first year as a pro in 1985.

As was the case in the GP d'Ouverture la Marseillaise it is most likely the French teams who will animate the race. The winner of that race Samuel Dumoulin is also due to be present here and will be joined by other French favourites Pierre Rolland, Pierrick Fedrigo and Jerome Coppel.

The explosive German sprinter Marcel Kittel is also due to take part for the 1t4i team. He is a former medalist at the Under-23 world time trial championships so he certainly has the skill-set necessary to target the overall win in the opening stage race of the European season.

An Post Sean Kelly Team for the Étoile de Bessèges:

Gediminas Bagdonas (Lithuania)

Sean Downey (Ireland)
Nico Eeckhout (Belgium)


Stijn Ennekens (Belgium)

Pieter Ghyllebert (Belgium)


Ronan McLaughlin (Ireland)
Mark McNally (Great Britain)
Kenneth van Bilsen (Belgium)

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